The IAEG XII Congress was held on September 15-19, 2014 at Torino, Italy. It was also a vital event for celebrating the 50~(th) Anniversary of the IAEG foundation. An important message of this congress is that engineering geology plays an increasing important role in our changing world, especially in characterizing human responses to the dynamic changes of geo-environment. This paper summarizes the research status and frontiers for eight main topics of IAEG XII congress:(1)Climate Change and Engineering Geology; (2)Landslide Processes; (3)River basins, Reservoir Sedimentation and Water Resources; (4)Marine and Coastal Processes; (5)Urban Geology, Sustainable Planning and Landscape Exploitation; (6)Applied Geology for Major Engineering Projects; (7)Education, Professional Ethics and Public Recognition of Engineering Geology and (8)Preservation of Cultural Heritage.